The retrofit of suburbia: The office park

New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Suburbia was conceived in the desire for blandly pleasant places. It sometimes achieved this, particularly where maturing landscape obscured infantile architecture. But visual satisfaction upon arrival at fullness now often obscures an underlying irony; suburbia has begun losing value, both because of technical obsolescence and generational uncoolness. To use a term intrinsic to our consumption-based society, the first generation of post-war suburbia (1945-1968) is “outtadate,” and elements of the second (1969-1989) are getting there.

The next Technical Pages will examine how outmoded places may be remediated. Because one premise of suburbia was segregation of uses, installments will proceed by use categories, showing how to retrofit commercial centers, residential pods, and the thoroughfares connecting them for greater suitability and flexibility. Discussed earlier in connection with the live-work unit, the office park will here be considered again as a place in transition.